An annual $10 permit fee for each newsrack will be considered by the San Diego City Council next month after the Land Use and Housing Committee voted 4-0 Aug. 9 to approve such a measure.
The city’s estimated cost for inspections and processing permits comes to $9.88, according to the city’s Neighborhood Code Compliance Division. The city’s cost will be rounded off to $10 per newsrack if the City Council adopts the regulation.
For some time, publishers, circulation managers and employees of 12 area papers participated in a task force that studied the issue of abandoned or broken newsracks on city sidewalks.
Councilman Kevin Faulconer moved to forward the idea of starting a $10 per newsrack permit, which was seconded by Toni Atkins. Faulconer said the permit fee “will get rid of stuff that doesn’t look good,” such as abandoned or damaged newsracks.
The land use committee also voted to recommend that newsracks be considered abandoned if it does not carry publications for 30 consecutive days or if the newsrack is unofficially appropriated by another publication. Damaged and abandoned racks would be considered a public nuisance and removed by the city after 60 days.
No member of the task force in attendance at the meeting objected to the new deadlines.
Toni Atkins said the $10 per newsrack fee “has to be justifiable” as it relates to actual city cost. The fee will go into the general fund, which pays for the city’s code compliance division.
Faulconer asked how prompt the city would be to remove abandoned or damaged newsracks. City staff said the $10 permit charge might cause newspaper publishers to be more responsive when told of a problem with a newsrack that has already cost them a permitting fee.
According to the regulation’s language, publishers would be responsible for the removal of graffiti, trash, stickers or debris inside or outside a newsrack. Newsracks would also require weather protection to prevent fly-away papers.
The committee also added language to the ordinance that would allow city workers to correct minor newsrack violations that are considered “easily curable on the spot without the use of any tools.”
The city attorney will work up an agreement that protects the city from liability associated with newsracks.
The San Diego Union-Tribune has 1,094 newsracks in the city. The Los Angeles Times has 650, USA Today has 167, and The Wall Street Journal has 100 newsracks, according to a report prepared by city staff for the committee.
The San Diego Community Newspaper Group, which includes the Peninsula Beacon, Beach & Bay Press, La Jolla Village News, Downtown News and Golden Triangle News has approximately 123 newsracks located throughout its areas of coverage.